How to Write the Introduction of a Research Paper

How to write the introduction of a research paper using four simple steps.

College students and even beginning graduate students are often confronted with questions on how to write the introduction of a research paper correctly. Questions such as what should be the content of the introduction or how should the introduction be written are common.

Here are four steps on how to write the introduction of a research paper:

Step 1. Define the Objectives of the Research Paper

What essentially are the objectives of the research paper? The main objectives of the research paper should reveal the reasons for undertaking the research. It should provide the reader the right direction needed to evaluate the results of the research paper. The background information should be written in such a way that the reader need not examine or browse other publications about the topic discussed in the research paper.

The introduction should provide the reasons behind the conduct of the research paper. The introduction narrates the circumstances that led the author to conduct research and come up with a solution to the problem identified.

Most important, the introduction should briefly and clearly state the objectives in writing the research paper. It should be brief so that the reader will see immediately if the research paper is relevant to his interest or discipline. The information provided should be founded on some other previous study that has a bearing on the issues at hand.

Step 2. Rules on How to Write the Introduction of the Research Paper

There are rules to be followed on how to write the introduction of the research paper. The introduction should state the nature as well as scope and limitations of the research paper. The nature of the research paper refers to the circumstances that produced the existing phenomena while the scope and limitations of the research paper refers to the extent by which the problem was researched on and what issues have not been covered. This should be written in easily understandable terms.

Step 3. Brief Review of Relevant Literature

Also incorporated in the introduction is a brief review of relevant literature in order to orient the reader about the topic that is being investigated. Relevant literature consists of reading materials from reliable sources like scientific journals, recently published books, online publications, among others. Books are outcomes of many scientific studies packed into a collection thus will also beef up the arguments in the research paper. Scientific journals are, however, preferred than books because books take more time to publish. Dependable online publications are those published in government sites, sites that focus on factual or referenced content, or information from a well-known authority writing about the subject.

The introduction of a research paper should also state a brief overview on the method of the investigation. It will be desirable to state the reasons for choice of a particular method. The method used should be some kind of procedure that can be followed or repeated by another person who would like to conduct a similar study as well as the statistical treatment used to analyze the data.

Midway in the introduction, the principal results of the research paper should be stated, highlighting the major findings. The findings must be consistent with the objectives of the research paper. The researcher should not withhold but state directly the major findings. However, avoid too detailed descriptions of the results. Reserve that in the body of the research paper.

Step 4. Conclusion/s

Finally, the introduction of a research paper should state the conclusion or conclusions based on the results generated by the study. Statements irrelevant to the findings must be avoided. This wraps up the whole issue introduced in the early part of the directions on how to write the introduction of a research paper.

These four steps on how to write the introduction of a research paper will facilitate the preparation of the research abstract. The research abstract is the research paper in a capsule. This is much shorter than the introduction but essentially includes the four steps on how to write the introduction a research paper discussed above.

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